


Corrupted

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AkuRoku - Freeform, Angst, Fighting, Gen, Gen up to a point, M/M, Seven Lights, Sparring, Thirteen Darknesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1923258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Roxas?" Lea's throat was aching, his mouth going dry as he turned around slowly. Roxas was standing maybe five feet away, staring at him with big eyes. The same windswept, blonde hair. The same childish look. The same <i>Roxas.</i></p>
<p><i></i>Except his eyes. His eyes were yellow.</p>
<p>KHIII 'AU'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Corrupted

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: There is an Archive Warning involved in this story; I chose not to use them for the sake of preserving story content. But do be warned that there is at least one of the four.
> 
> Requested by Satellite... although I'm sure this isn't exactly what was expected. This is the idea I had, though. :P

Lea snapped his chakram forward, smiling as he heard the screech of the Heartless it sliced through. He lunged and swung his Keyblade, swiping it around him in an arc and turning just in time to catch his returning chakram. He darted through the plaza as hearts floated up to the sky around him, the sound of battle pulsing in his ears.

Fighting a war was difficult. It wasn't like fighting in the Organization. Maybe because it hadn't mattered then. The worst that could have happened then was that he got turned into a Dusk. Now, he could die. He could die, and the entire world would be consumed by darkness. That wasn't something he was willing to do now, not when he was part of the light. The Seven Keyblade Wielders, the Seven Wielders of Light fighting against the Thirteen Darknesses.

Lea's heart was pounding in his chest and his pulse was thrumming in his ears. It was all he could hear over the call of battle, over the Heartless dying and people shouting and screaming. His own heartbeat and his own footsteps, hitting against the stone as he ran. If he could just get into the Castle, with enough reinforcements, they'd be able to take it for themselves.

"Axel?"

The voice was so quiet that he barely heard it over the din in his ears, but it was strikingly familiar and all consuming. Pure, unadultered bliss shot through his veins only to be replaced with cold terror. If there was one voice he should not be hearing on the battlefield, it was not-

"Roxas?" His throat was aching, his mouth going dry as he turned around slowly. Roxas was standing maybe five feet away, staring at him with big eyes. The same windswept, blonde hair. The same childish look. The same _Roxas_.

Except his eyes. His eyes were yellow.

Lea felt like he was going to pass out.

"Axel," Roxas said quietly. "Axel, don't do this."

His body's reaction went far ahead of where his mind could take him. Tears were collecting in his eyes without conscious thought of emotion, his Keyblade and chakram vanishing from his hand, his feet taking him steps closer to his previous best friend. Still best friend.

_Except it's not_ him _,_ a little voice in his head whispered.

Lea jerked to a stop, his chest heaving with exertion from fighting and exertion from emotion he hadn't felt in years.

"Axel," Roxas pleaded.

It was him, it was, it was just... he was different. Like how Lea had been a little different when he was Axel, but... this was more powerful. Like Isa. Like how Isa had changed so much, given into Xemnas and Xehanort's control. Yellow-orange eyes where they were meant to be blue, so blue, bright blue... Roxas was under that control now, too. One of the Darknesses. And there would be no getting him back.

Lea's palms burned. His chakrams, ready to burst forward in a flurry of flames. His body jerking between emotions and realism. Roxas was his enemy now, but _how_... How could he fight his best friend?

"Axel, I was wrong," Roxas whispered. All Lea could hear was Roxas. It was like they were the only two on earth. "I shouldn't have left. I overreacted. I belong here. With you. Axel?"

Lea took a step back as Roxas stepped forward. Roxas saw and his eyes filled with age-old sadness, and hurt, and Lea's heart broke again.

But _this. wasn't. Roxas._

His Keyblade burst forth from his hand, his hair rustling in the warm breeze that accompanied it. He gripped it tightly beneath gloved fingers. His hands were shaking and he wished he could just turn and run and leave this to somebody else, but he couldn't. Not Roxas. Even if it was a dilated form of him, he had never deserved this. Never, not Roxas, not _him_.

"Axel!" Roxas protested. "I thought we were best friends."

There was a noise that Lea didn't recognize when Roxas said that, until he realized that it had come from his own mouth. He pressed his hand over his lips, staring at the blonde.

"Please," Roxas whispered.

"This isn't how it was supposed to be," Lea forced out, gripping his Keyblade tighter before lunging forward.

Roxas's Keyblades materialized, Oblivion, and Oathkeeper, and then they were fighting, reminiscent of years ago, when Roxas had been Roxas but not-Roxas at the same time when all Lea had ever wanted was to bring him back. This was the same, but oh so different, because there was no _coming with me, conscious or not_. This was life and death, and it was Lea's hands by which he had to deliver it.

He didn't realize there were tears tracking down his cheeks until he felt them tickling his face. He didn't move to wipe them away, just focused on the fight, parrying Oathkeeper with his chakram and locking Oblivion with his own Keyblade and sending fire into Roxas when the blonde was left wide open.

Roxas went flying backwards, landing with a sick thud of a black coat and blonde hair. Lea jumped forward, pinning him down beneath one of the spikes of his chakram.

"Axel, don't, don't, please don't. Don't do this for them. The Light took me away, why are you fighting with it?!" Roxas struggled, wincing when the spike dug into his chest. "Come back to us, Axel. Please."

"These things shouldn't have happened to you," Lea gasped. He felt like he couldn't breathe. "You deserved it the least, Roxas. You deserved the world. You deserve everything that I can never give you." He couldn't breathe properly because he was crying. His chest was constricting even tighter. He leaned down and jambed his lips against Roxas's, hard. "I am _so_ sorry that I couldn't keep my promise. I am so sorry," he said as he pulled away.

Before the emotion could cloud his vision further, Lea leaned back and brought his Keyblade down in one harsh swipe. Darkness erupted around his vision, shards of darkness when a Nobody died, even though all the Nobodies were Human now and that shouldn't happen.

"... Maybe the next life will be better," Lea whispered, his hands curling over nothing and his lips still tasting of sea-salt and sunshine.

He dropped his Keyblade and chakram, both vanishing as they hit the ground. He wrapped his arms around his knees and buried his face against them, trying to block out the rest of the world as it came back to him.

It was different now, though. The Darkness might be defeated, but it didn't matter: the world was shattered, corrupted to Lea's eyes, and no amount of Light would ever be able to fix that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> To me, Lea would set him free before betraying the side that Roxas truly belonged to - the Light.
> 
> I do not own _Kingdom Hearts_. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.  
>  Thanks for reading!


End file.
